Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Gendered Language

Mr. Robertson's lecture on gendered language really made me think. I had never really thought about how easily we say something that is so gender specific. Terms like "ladylike" or "tomboy" have always been a part of my life. It never occurred to me how much it can mean in profiling genders.

Seeing the difference in the writing of the two second graders was super interesting to me. It show show much society puts pressure on each gender to express their writing in gendered ways. The second grade girl is more likely to write about community whereas the boys write about contest. It so clearly showed differently in their writing. Girls can be portrayed as loving and caring, but boys are more tough and daring. Which is not true in all cases, but mostly what society has taught us to think. Looking at the writing by the sophomores was also surprising to me. The difference between the paragraphs we looked at was a lot harder to identify the gender. I think that both girls and guys can write from both point of views, the community vs contest, as you get older.

I didn't realize how much I use these words in daily life. It almost subconscious to me. It's so easy to just use gendered language and not think about it. Society expects certain things out of women as well as men. I agree with the statement that their is a double standard that goes with both men and women. A women is criticized if they are not virtuous or "ladylike", but men have the same thing when they express like in more feminine things or are not "manly" enough. I can now recognize these words and will be more aware of using them.